Tag Archives: Roscoe Churchill

The Flambeau Mine near Ladysmith, WI has a long history of controversy due, in part, to the proximity of the mine to the Flambeau River. This photo was taken in September 1994, when heavy rains caused flooding at the mine site.

State Officials Urged to ‘Learn from Flambeau’ and Stop Proposed Mega-Mines in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan

A federal court ruled yesterday that Flambeau Mining Company (FMC) violated the Clean Water Act on numerous occasions by allowing pollution from its Flambeau Mine site, near Ladysmith, Wis., to enter the Flambeau River and a nearby tributary known as Stream C.

The lawsuit was filed early last year by the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council (WRPC), the Center for Biological Diversity, and Laura Gauger. The complaint charged that Flambeau Mining Company (a subsidiary of Kennecott Minerals Company / Rio Tinto) was violating the Clean Water Act by discharging stormwater runoff containing pollutants, including toxic metals like copper and zinc, from a detention basin known as a biofilter. Continue reading →

Roscoe and Evelyn Churchill were right. They said from the very beginning that the Flambeau Mine would pollute the water over there, and it has.Now we have a chance to do something about it, and WRPC is asking for your help. Please see the attached letter for details and submit your written comments to the Wisconsin DNR by February 20, 2012.

February 9th marked the one year anniversary of the death of Roscoe Churchill, the grandfather of Wisconsin’s grassroots anti-mining movement. Folks in the UP may know Roscoe better as the author of that really big book, “The Buzzards Have Landed!”

Recently, Laura Furtman, Roscoe’s co-author of “The Buzzards Have Landed!”, sent an e-mail commemorating the death of Roscoe. This e-mail came at a time when many people in the Michigan anti-metallic sulfide mining movement recently took a hit with the DNR’s decision to approve Kennecott’s reclamation permit and landuse lease. Remember…It’s not over til its over.

All of our letters to the DNR did help make the land use lease more difficult for Kennecott. The company cannot begin mining until all contested case hearings have concluded. Also, we still have a chance to send letters to the Environmental Protection Agency to try to halt their approval of Kennecott’s Underground Injection Permit. There are a number of avenues we can still take as a community to stop this mine. Let’s put our heads together, keep fighting, and lay the Eagle Project to rest as Wisconsin did with the Crandon mine.

Roscoe Churchill, a dearly loved leader of Wisconsin’s environmental
movement passed away on February 9, 2007 in his sleep after a long
struggle with prostate cancer.

Roscoe Churchill of Ladysmith, was the grandfather of Wisconsin’s
grassroots anti-mining movement. For more than 30 years, this retired
school principal, part-time farmer, former Republican, and Rusk County
supervisor, along with his late wife Evelyn, were the heart and soul of
the efforts to stop some of the largest mining companies in the world,
including Kennecott, Noranda, Exxon, Rio Algom and BHP Billiton from
destroying the land and clean waters of communities from Ladysmith to
the Mole Lake Chippewa Reservation near Crandon, and from La Crosse
County to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.